Micellanized spectrophotometric method for the determination of beryllium using haematoxylin

A simple and sensitized spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amounts of beryllium has been described. The method is based on the formation of a ternary complex by the reaction of beryllium with haematoxylin in the presence of micellar medium (cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide). The ternary complex of beryllium has a maximum absorbance at 592 nm and showed an excellent sensitivity (molar absorption coefficient of 7.07 × 104 L mol−1 cm−1 and the Sandell's sensitivity being 1.27 × 10−4 μg cm−2) and reproducibility (within-day precision: R.S.D. ≤ 0.36%, n = 5, between-day precision: R.S.D. ≤ 0.65%, n = 5). Linearity was achieved over the range 0.01–0.1 μg mL−1 of beryllium with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999. The effect of foreign substances on the determination has been examined. The proposed procedure has been applied to the determination of beryllium in water samples.